Integration of medicinal chemistry in therapeutic decision-making: A way forward?

Many attempts have been made to integrate medicinal chemistry knowledge into therapeutic decision-making in pharmacy programs across North America. Examples include the use of Structure-Based Therapeutic Evaluations, alignment of medicinal chemistry content with courses in pharmacology, pharmaceutics and pharmacotherapeutics, and team-based or problem-based learning methods. The majority of these approaches indicate that students have greater confidence or comfort with medicinal chemistry, but there remain few cases where an improvement in performance has been measured. This is especially challenging for assessing a student's ability to implement medicinal chemistry learning in pharmacotherapeutic decision-making. Building upon our national special interest group's recent environmental scan of medicinal chemistry instruction in Canadian Pharmacy programs, we are investigating strategies for integration of medicinal chemistry learning in therapeutic decision-making. This commentary will discuss methods and evidence to support medicinal chemistry integration, relevant assessment strategies, and potential paths forward.